I wish I didn't get so close to tears, But what are you going to do? It's no filter, it's no fighting filter. It's true what they say.
Patrick Brammel is one of those actors Australians feel like they know. For more than two decades, he's been a familiar presence on our screens, building a career that's been steady respected and quietly impressive. But in the last few years something has shifted. Alongside his wife, actor and writer Harriet Dyer, he co created and starred in Colin from Accounts, a show that started as a very specific, very Australian story and quickly became a global hit. Off screen, their
lives are just as intertwined. They write together, act together, and are raising a young family. Patrick Brammele is on the cusp of something bigger again. He's just been introduced to a global audience in a very different way, starring as the new life of Interest opposite Anne had the Way in the highly anticipated sequel to The Devil Wears Prada, a film with a legacy, a fan base, and a cultural footprint that's hard to overstate. This conversation was recorded
the day before the film was released. Before the reviews, before the reaction, before the moment where everything potentially changes. So today we wanted to understand who Patrick Bramble really is, the road that got him here, the life he's built along the way, and what it feels like to be standing on the edge of something that could change everything.
Who are you?
Great question? And let me answer that question with another question. Who are you?
I'm Kate Lanebrook So no Filter?
Oh shit, same? Okay, you've checked made it, You've called my bluffield, Well I have. I'm Patrick Bramble, but I'm also from no Filter.
You are from no Filter. And not only that, you're now are from the world, from the world. You were always from the world.
Yeah, I was always very much from the world.
But there's something about Australians and I think when you work in the creative endeavor on any front, that we know that we are depending on your worldview at the bottom of the globe. Yeah, yep, And now you are not on the bottom of the globe.
No, I'm creeping up the side of the globe.
You really are.
I don't realize how bottom of the globe you are until we travel, and all Australians need to travel like we do.
It's a compulsion you have to because the.
Rest of the world's out there. I mean, I grew up in Canberra, right, and I grew up as this is why wave analogy. I grew up thinking it's a nation's capital. This is a busy city. Is where it's happened.
Nations capital is not many people know that, no, And then I moved to Sydney when I was what twenty one, like proper, and I went, oh, okay, there's actually an organic logic to the city, Like it starts at the harbor and it spreads out and things make sense on a different and I was like, and obviously it's a lot busier.
And then and that's how I felt about going out into Europe, into America, you know, and just going, oh, things are actually happening here. And let me add a wrinkle to that. I'm really pleased we're down here. It is such a joy for me, Like Haar and I've been based in la for some years and it's just such a joy to know that we can come back
at any moment. Obviously because of the States lately, it's just like a dumpster fire in many respects, and it's like a lot of American friends are like, thank god, you've got an escape patch, you know, yes, And I also, don't get me wrong, I do love it over there. We've got this place in La and we're very very happy. We love that hood and the American people lost for Lee Near lost for lep Atwater. So it's lovely and it's kind of the least LA place. It's really nice.
People walk around like for some reason Australians when we go to La, we will go to West Hollywood. I have no idea why it's mental there. And I lived there for like a year or so.
Stay in West Tolly. What is it the yogurt shops.
It's the yoga yeah, yeah, and it's yeah, it's really frenetic there. And then I lived there for like a year or so and then I moved out. I was like, what the hell was I doing? Hollywood?
Why did you move? So you got together with Harry. Harriet died, so we have to say genius, Oh my god to tell you on your part, yes, I.
Don't understand it from her end.
No one understands it from her end, no one. Uh yeah, well yeah we got it together.
You were doing that sketch comedy show. Was that the sketch comedy.
Show Elegant Gentleman's Guy Tonight Fight?
I thought you were doing Oh what's it called?
Yeah, no activity, Yeah, yeah, it wasn't a sketch show.
Well it was funny, Yes, it was fun It was a comedy what we call a comedy and and so, yeah, Harry was in that.
But at that time, so I moved over around twenty fifteen.
Oh did you know what.
I probably moved about twenty sixteen. I got a pilot there in twenty fourteen fifteen, and so I flew over there shot that.
Did you get the pilot from here?
Interestingly, yes, because I'd never got an American job before. And then I did an ABC show here called The Strange Calls With It was created by Daily Pierson, who's one of the makers of Bluey. He's a genius, and he wrote and directed that and we did it with Barry Krocker was in it. It was like a really Toby trust Love and I played this role. Anyway, we did a season novel here on ABC and it was well received enough, and then they wanted to make an
American version of it. And then so they asked me to put down a tape for the same role, but Americans. Oh, and I did and weirdly got it.
So when you say American was an American accent?
American accent? Come on, I'm not doing it. You'll not lead me into this Hollywood.
It's just it's amazing, isn't it.
It's a terrible thing for actors when you get put on the spot at that.
This morning, They're like, you do a great Stanley Tucci impression. I was like, do I. So here's a challenge, say this is Stanley too. I was like, this is like TV. What can we say? Well, not really.
You can say whatever you want.
Fantastic. Yeah, great, it's like punctuation.
So Patrick Brammel, we saw you last night at the premiere of Devils Prat.
It was great. It was great.
I love just saying old friends meet a new friend, which is you. So the world is going to meet you tomorrow.
No, they've already met me.
They have already met you the meeting.
The meeting is on Thursday, which is tomorrow, right Thursday. When this comes out on Monday, Monday, I've already met me.
They've met you.
I'll take this.
Yeah, yeah, no, no, please as you how okay? So, yeah, I saw you last night.
I saw me last night at the premiere Sydney premier.
Right.
I was on the red car growing an interview and you interrupted a very important interview and I lost my train of thought.
I said, hello, Braml.
You said, Hio Brammel, and I went, we'll do the tomorrow line Brook. You know I'm doing something else, yeah, I and so yes, so he has already opened. Now all right, So we had the premier last night, but by the time this goes happens correct, people were seen it.
Yeah. Yeah, And how does that feel?
Because even when we were waiting last night for the for the movie to start, and we were looking at the big screen and there was Meryl Street, ding Ding, Anne Hathaway, Annie as you call it, I do, Stanley Chucci, he's Italian on boat side.
Really annoys my husband. By the way, Harry and I love that. Ye as well. He got that.
Now they've dropped it apparently from the new series. He doesn't say it anymore any well. The point is we know those dudes.
Yeah, and Emily Ding, Emily Dell, the Legacy cast.
Oh yeah, okay, and what are they calling you?
Just just Australian guy.
Yeah, right, so how does that feel?
It feels pretty weird. And so when I saw it for the first time at the New York premiere the other day, that's when I first saw it with and I was like, kind of, I didn't do that, because that's not a good look looking at something about But I was like looking at it, going, don't ruin it. Don't ruin it because I speak with the Australian accent. I speak just like this. I use the same body as well, and the same head, same head, same hair,
all same shit. And I was a bit like, don't ruin the movie, mate, like be in it, be of the world. That was what I was most concerned. And then I watched I was like, it works. I fit. I fit ye. And that's testament to not just me, but the writing and the makeup and the I feel like I fit in that.
No one who's watching it is going hold makeup and lighting and they're just going Patrick Bramle, Yeah, that's true. You know that is Yes, uneasy lies the head that wears the crown?
Heavy, Oh that wears the crown.
He's so Shakespearean. Wow, I thought it was uneasy.
No, I mean, I'm sure it's heavy. It's uneasy, he's uneasy. Yeah, let's not rewrite the bard Let's deck with the heavy as the head that wears the crown.
Wow, I've been school massively by Hollywood superstar.
That's right. How does that feel? Really? You like it?
I don't know if it feels humbling or humiliating.
It's a fine line.
But okay, so.
You were playing an American bizarrely when so Devil Wears Prather too very exciting American production of huge, massive production. But they didn't want you to be an American.
No, it was a written I think they went through lots of iterations of the character, like who is he? Because they wanted there was so much scrutiny on the making of this one because the first one is so beloved, And I think they went through a bunch of different iterations of what you know, Andy's love interest should be, and there was like versions of like is it an old flame from school? Is it that? And I think they took a long time.
Tim Greenie was never going to get a crack at it him and he wasn't going to get a redemption round.
No, I felt bad. We've never met him, but he did his job well, like he's Did that mean we've never met him? I meant to say, and it just sounded well, are my people and I have not My team has not met him. No, I've never met him. But his character's function in the first season is to go, hey, Andy, you're making a deal with the devil. You've changed. I like you the way you are and like at the time, and go yeah. But then in the ensuing years people like, he's the villain of the film.
Yeah, okay, the passage of time will sometimes do that.
Yeah, because people love the Andy characters so much, and so any kind of negative stuff around her I think didn't age. Well.
Okay, so all these conversations were happening, Yeah, you and you?
Where were you at this point? Where are you? And what's your life?
What's my life looks at this I was in Melbourne. It was the first half of last year, and I was shooting an Apple show called I think it's called Last Scene that's coming out later this year. That's a drama, not a laugh in it, like Grieving Father, like dark, dark stuff. I'm excited to say that, But I was doing that. It was a long ship. It was one hundred days shoot. So I'm there in Melvs with Harry and our two little daughters.
And so the new one was really little then.
Yeah, she was, she was she was months old. It was like from like three months to to like what's eight months and and so we're wrapping that up. We're a few weeks ay from wrapping that up, and we're about to move to Montreal for five months because Harry got a job at an American job, the CBS show called DMV and that was shooting in Montreal. So we're about to move from Melbourne to Montreal with two kids
and a nanny. And I got a call saying, hey, they're having trouble casts in this role and they'd love you to put down a tape. And I said, that's so lovely. I respectfully won't put down a tape because I don't have the time, Like I'm genuinely don't have the time to put down a tape, like to put down a good tape. You don't want to put down something half as you want to put down something good. It takes half a day. You're going to learn it. You can make it, do the takes because edit it.
Blah blah, blah and any other time. Secondly, even if I got the job, we would then be in Montreal and Harry will be on set fifteen hours a day. I can't leave it all to the nanny, like, I've got to be there, you know.
And you've got two daughters.
Have two daughters, and so there's two good reasons why I shouldn't put down a tape. The third good reason, which I didn't tell anyone at the time, was as if they're going to put me in the like, no one's going to cast me in that role. And that's not me being modest or anything like that. It's surprised you are.
I'm looking if I'd not seen it with my own eyes, exactly.
Was that whole thing last night? I was an elaborate room.
It was just for you. This is a tri show vibe, so I was. I was not being monster or down on myself or anything like that. I was just like, the chances of me getting that are so small, and I don't have the time to spare. So I said no. And then a couple of days later, a mutual friend at CBS and an executive who I'm friendly with who I work with, she contacted me she's best mates with the writer with Eleen. Okay, and she said, Eleen and
David the director, they really love you. They love Colin from accounts, and they'd love to get your number to talk to you. And I was like really, I said, of course, passed on my number. And then I heard nothing week and I was like, this is so fucking annoying. Like I had already said no to this on my own terms. I felt good about it, and then you've got yeah, yeah, you know, we want it, and then nothing. Of course, something's happening, and then so I let it
go again. And then I got a text from the director from David saying, hey, I know you've already said no, but I would really love you to do it.
You like, how did you get my fucking number?
Mane?
I said, no, dude, how many times I have to say no to you? And I was like, holy shit. And it was a straight up offer. And then so oh oh, and I'm maintained that if I had to put down a tape, yeah, you wouldn't have got I don't think it would have gone it. Yeah right, And I don't think I would ever recommend that as a as a ployee because it's two high stakes. Like I was genuinely not doing it, and then I would have
loved to have been it. I just didn't think it was gonna happen, and for all the reasons I said, But anyway I got the offer. Oh yeah, I think if they had got my tape, that would have gone, his tapes here, his tapes here, we'd love him from accounts and put it in and gone, who else is?
Yeah?
Right?
Who else is?
Because also I I think if you had put a tape in, you would have played the character that you thought you needed to play. Whereas that's interesting, isn't it? So what choice would you have made for him?
Peter? I would have Well, first I would have done American accent because he's written.
As an American.
Yeah right, Brooklyn Brooklyn. So I was like, shit, got to get a good Brooklyn accent. Once they told me.
The funniest thing I ever had, what os and oils, et cetera.
Really good, And I said, okay, so Brooklyn, is that the vibe? And they said no, no, no, no, just do it is Australian. That's the relief because we're shooting in a few weeks. So yeah, and that's when I realized they just loved Colin and they wanted to tap that really.
Well, okay, so and and it's very true to that character of you, your relationship with Andy, which is very hard to do because the expectations are, yeah, we don't even.
Know what our expectations are, but we know that they're high.
Yep, yep, that's right.
That's amazing, dangerous, very hard.
Bread examined, high expectations.
Correct.
So that's so true. And so when I got it, I was just like, Okay, what's the scene? What are we doing in this scene? And everybody like this set was actually really relaxed and chill, and David Frankel, the director, was extremely laid back. It was just a nice vibe on set. It didn't feel like a giant Hollywood right, it didn't feel that way. Wow, And now knowing that it is a giant Hollywood movie, I wonder if any giant Hollywood movie feels like it when you're on set.
I reckon some of them do, but I think that maybe factors down from the filters, down from.
The leads as well.
The leads. There's only so so many people who can set a culture on set. And David and Alene were like awesome, which is like earthy, funny people. And Annie was great, super down.
There a streep and asshole.
I never met hers, she.
Was, but I I wondered about that. Actually, you were in that big party scene.
Yeah, yeah, in a big party scene with her and everything. But I don't need any of them, No, and my character makes an excuse to leave and you don't see my character. You don't see me again in that scene. And so I didn't get to work with any of them, but I did for the two days we shot that party scene, I was basically just sitting off set with Annie and Stanley and Emily and Justin throu and bj Novak. Oh, so it was like hanging out with the cool kids. Yeah,
like except all the cool kids are multimillionaire famous people. Well, I had a lot to offer the conversation.
So this is a very interesting thing because you have been an actor in Australia with a lot of success. Yes, and some of that is luck.
A lot of it is luck.
And some of that is also I remember Eric Banner saying this thing, actually there's no so he gets annoyed by the luck thing his dad or seed. It's actually preparedness and then an opportunity knocks and then that's how you.
Make the most of it.
Yes, but my point is a lot of actors in Australia don't get to work the way that you have gotten to work.
Yeah.
But the next the extrapolation of that is that hardly anybody gets to make a project and that it has the knock on that Colin from Accounts has had. I know, I know that's extraordinary because it's so it's written in an Australian voice. Yeah, and it's written with these characters that are so misshapen and beautiful.
Yeah, yeah, it's.
Very you fall in love with them, it's really nice.
Well, Harry and I fell in love with them, like those characters in that world. Like we love that world. We love it and that's why we take such joy in doing it and we have a really shared singular point of view about it as well. I think that's a big part of why that show works because Been and fox Tell, who are the you know, local commissioners, They've been really of hands off. They don't give a lot of notes. They just let us kind of do
our thing, and it's a huge credit. It's a wonderful thing that they've done because they let us just do our weird shit. And in first season we were like, we had no notion that it would be as successful as it turned out to be, but we were like satisfied with it. We were like not self satisfied. We were like, we've given it everything. We have made the show that we wanted to make. I don't know how
this is going to go. You never fucking know, but we're happy with it, Like we think it's good and you know, it took off in a way that we've done.
How did it come out of Harry's brain?
We were chucking the idea around a bunch, the idea that meet cute idea that the meeting in the flash and nipple.
Hitting so not cute.
Americans. Oh my god, that's what I mean. I think it's the sort of thing where people are like, I don't think you'd ever come up with that by committee, you know, to be like no boob is and maybe a bit much hitting a.
Dog, yeah, naming a.
Dog, naming a dog and even selling that show in America. It's like the dogs fine, everyone, the dogs fine, because the America is like, what they hit a dog? What Yeah, And also the title Colin from Accounts. It put a lot of people off the right. I know what this is.
It's a workplace called I think you're Colin from account Yes.
I've had an interview very recently where they said, anyway, Colin, because I heard.
Andy when you did a conversation with Andy Richter, who was Conan's right hand die for a long time, he said his wife couldn't watch.
It because of the dog.
Yeah, do you remember that.
I remember she was like I'm out, Yes, that's right, and that's the that's what she get.
Start of the series, So risky more with Patrick after this short break. So where was Harry in her life with you? When she we were in LA and so I was set up there.
I think i'd like gone, hey, I'm definitely here from about twenty sixteen, and he was doing other stuff here in Australia and she came over and so I think it was around twenty seventeen.
For them, Please please thank you.
I know what that is. Well, you're too damn hot.
Yeah, that's what it is.
Set off the alarm.
Disregard it.
I'm disregarding regards very hard to disregard.
It's hard. Now, I was happy to disregarded before you mentioned anything.
It hard for me to disregard the hotness. Yeah, fair enough, yeah, fair enough. What should I do?
Just be what you're doing. It's good, it's working, all right, Harissa always saying about her. Oh yeah, so it's twenty seventeen.
Yeah, so she gone over, she come over to LA and.
I was working on the US version of No Activity, which we did on Sketch the Skets Show, the famous sket Show, And we were doing a version of that which is awesome in America, which nobody saw. And so I was busy with that, and she was bouncing off the walls waiting for work, you know, waiting to get use some momentum.
Are you allowed to work there? By the way, was she allowed to work? Then?
Yeah? She has complications or maybe she had a visa at that time green, because that's how whole finac Oh my god, that's yeah, that's it. That's a whole racket. But yeah, we got green cars. It was all. It was all fine. But anyway, until she got any work, which she ultimately got heaps of work over there, she was like, yeah, she was going stir crazy and and we were living in this tiny apartment and she had talked me into fostering a dog, and this is yeah,
this is fucking real, Like I always forget this. And so we went down to the local thing. It was like adopt a dog or foster dog day, and there was this one called Minchew, which is a terrible name, and it was this shitty looking dog and they were like, this is a problem dog. You know, it's got issues, and how I was like, I know, dogs don't want to like, do you, because I don't know. Do I gret with cats? Not really? She talks a big game and soort of like, you know, Minshew's been bullied by
all the dogs and stuff. So and she's like, it's fine, it's fine. So we took Minshew home and the first thing we did was go, let's change that name and and basically like in the first episode of season one, we had that back and forth and named him Colin from Accounts this dog and then we're like, oh so Colin. And it was fun for a couple of days, and then he started resource guarding like he would like he'd get a sock or something and be a that's.
Myself, look at you like that that was what was the cut of his jib by the way, scruffy, scruff It was a bit scruff dog, poor little fella, and he was like just and he was like holding Harry hostage, like she could come out of the bathroom and she.
Was was she his? Yeah, So he didn't dig on you, he didn't.
Dig on me, and he wasn't a happy camper and ultimately we had to take him back to that place. So we're really sorry. And Harry kept track of him and he was put in a place with someone who was really good at rehabilitating dogs. Fine, who cares. And then so anyway, so that happened, and then it was like, hey, why don't you write this idea, you know? And then so she went away that we've been talking about. But
then she went away to this place called Charlie's. It was this setup that's still in la called Australians in Film and it's like for Australians over there, run by some big hearted geniuses there Aussi's Yeah, Peter Richie is a guy over there who runs it. And it's like, hey, come in, we've got a little space here if anyone's to come in and do work. Or anything, or meet
other people, meet other Australians, make contacts. So Harry went in there with her laptop on the Monday, spent all of Monday installing final drafts on her computer and getting and like taking the sims off her confound. Yeah, I took a whole day. She came back, how's it going. She's like, I think I've got final draft now the writing software. And then was Thursday Friday. She wrote the fucking pilot it and came back and showed it and I was like, this is one of.
Three days, four days.
Before, so she didn't know that you write a great agony and meant to agonize over it yourself and you know, put it off. And it was really funny and it was like the bones of the pilot never changed from what she wrote really, and then you know, we got to producer Rob Gibson, who's our guy, and he and then we started getting some interest and then we all
sat in the room and plotted out the season. But she it all came out of her head, that pilot, really beyond the that initial setup, just that the next bits all sort of came out of her.
Because that's interesting when you're in a relationship with someone who's right for you. You can have emotionally right for you, socially right for you, whatever, but you have also found someone who's creatively right for you.
And it's like the pair of you together have got ignition. Yes, but that's amazing, isn't it really is?
It's like extremely lucky. I mean talking about luck, and I do want to talk about like a little bit more because I don't disagree with Eric Banner, but also I do disagree waiting. Yeah, we're really lucky to find it. But we made a very concerted decision to be together.
You know.
But no one's funnier than her. No one makes me laugh more than she does. You know, She's just we all our signaps is line up, and no relationship is perfect. Of course, we have all the usual bullshit and we're parents.
You know.
It's like it's fucking hard at times, but also it's joyous and we get each other. You know, there's there is a real uh, well, we were concerned that there wouldn't be on screen chemistry because we're already you.
Know, because he didn't have Sometimes there.
Isn't exactly like we're together, we've already like you know, there's no kind of tension here because we haven't consummated anything. It's like we're aready having together. And we were really pleased when there did seem to be chemistry on screen because there is off I don't want to go into the details of that, but I mean, we could do an after hours episode when you.
Were falling in love? Now, who fell in love first? And how did that? What did that look like?
What did because when we when I hear your rattat tat with each other, yeah, sometimes that can be matey, do you know what I mean?
And it can keep it can keep romance at bay.
Yeah, yeah, yeah it didn't. It didn't. We fell in love at the same time in the same amount at exactly the same way. I don't know. I couldn't speak to that.
You've never discussed that.
No, we we we did. It was it was it was People talk about like conference counts, like how much of it is fiction? How much you know? Is it like a peak behind the curtain? And I think a lot of people and we're happy for people to go it is a peak behind the curtain, yeah, because it's not. But what it is is what is real is the way that we bounce off each like you just said,
like you do have that electricity together. We enjoy each other, you know, and that that was the thing that was evident from the get go, you know.
When you were cast as a leading man in Prata.
Yeah, devil what do you call it? I call it devil is prior to too.
You're a really formal guy.
I'm very formal about.
It, very formal. How was Harry about that?
Obviously it was all you know, she was there for the process of this is not going to happen.
This is crazy. Oh they've come back, they would Yeah.
She was like, like me, couldn't believe it. And as I think I said last night, it was like our first thought was like, how do we make this work? Because I have to do it. They've offered it to me as if I'm not going to do it. Oh no, you But logistically it was genuinely hard to do. It's not like I had some time on my hands, or she could have taken the kids for a while or something like. We were flat out and so we just had to expand to meet the challenge because I had
to do it. She knew I had to, and she was very happy for me. But we very and as I was for myself, it were very quick to sort of bypass that in a way to get straight down to the brass tacks about how we're going to make it work.
I think I mean more like that, suddenly my husband is like sexiest man alive.
Yeah, that's a bullshit, isn't it.
No?
No, I know that's bullshit within the context of your relationship. But through the prism of the outside world. Yes, that's a shift that you're not You know you're not Flash Gordon anymore.
Do you know you're not Gordon Crapper.
No, no, no, crack, crack, sorry crap. I'd never give myself a ridiculous name like Crapper.
You wouldn't.
I absolutely would.
But you know that's a seismic shift.
It is professionally, yes, but that doesn't enter into it. For Harry, like and she's happy for me. We always want the best for each other. But I don't think we honestly never talked about that, because it's genuinely not I just turned fucking fifty. Like, I'm not a leading man, do you know what I mean? I'm not, but you are a leading But I technically I am technically and also, do.
You know one of the things I don't want to give a spoiler the sex scene? Mate, Where was.
The sex scene?
Where was the sixth scene?
There was?
There was something I.
Knew that was there was, there was there was like after we have a date. Look, when you're putting a film together, things have got to go.
And so Kidney Sweeney went.
Yeah, yeah she was. I never met her, but she was apparently the opening sequence, and that was all. And it's all for creative reasons, of course, and time and time and all that sort of stuff. And so there are a few scenes that I shot that weren't in the movie, and one of them was Annie and I have this dinner date and then we go back to her place and have this you know when we kiss, and and that was cut. How was it?
How was that?
It was slightly awkward? You know, we don't know each other a couple.
Of days, right, she wasn't Annie yet then she was.
And that's all the best. But the fact is you still got to kiss each other and make it look like you're falling in love, and it's all pretensies. And the other thing is it's super famous. Most I've personally been fans for a long long time, so I'm used to seeing.
Her, of course, Yeah, that's right.
Fortunately, I'm used to doing pretenzies, yes, and I'm really pleased that i am, because I can imagine if you're not, it might be confusing or something. Well if you Harry was used to pretendies as well, Like I have a partner who understands this is what you do. This is acting, you know. So it was awkward and so far and that was like, hey, we'll do a care since it's fine, And it's fine, you know, but it's it's it's just acting. As boring as that is, it's it's all it is.
I know that it is just acting.
I mean it's very unlikely some's going to be cast opposite and Hathaway, who hasn't acted before, yeah he doesn't know, never know, that could be precarious. Yeah, but what I loved last night was that there was a real hunger for and you know, in Australia we hear about talk poppy syndrome, which is fully a thing. I'm not arguing against that, but how did it feel for you last night to be at the cinema that was full of Australians and absolutely exultant for you.
It was joyful and stressful because it was only the second time i'd seen it. Right. The first time was like last week at the New York premier World Time.
Oh you hadn't seen it before.
I hadn't seen it before that. So I'm sitting down and I was a little bit like fuck. Like in New York, I was watching it at the Lincoln Center and everyone's there, you know, like everyone, and but no one's yes, I'm in it, And so I'm like, from my point of view, I'm like, I'm watching it going, Patty, don't ruin it. Okay, you're coming up the scene, Okay, you didn't ruin that bet, right next bit, you didn't ruin that bit. So that's kind of how I saw
it the first time. Second time, I'm like, I know, I'm okay in it. I know the movie is good. But at the New York one, no one was really concerned about me. Everyone's concerned. And so here I'm the only person from the movie here straight by Aussies, and I'm with my crew of people who've invited all my friends and stuff. And every time I come on the streen, like they're like like is everyone else enjoying the movie
like you know? So I was seeing it from Australian point of view, and it was it's your home crowd, want them to be happy with you more than.
But also because there was an there's an integral truth to you that we think we all know that and you did not betray that.
Yeah, that's that's very hard to do.
Well, that's nice to hear, don't you think I think so. I think so. When they let me do an Australian my normal voice, I was like, shit, I hope that works. I hope that fits in the movie. But the way that they set it up on set and again with Annie, she's so kind of like present and playful, like we were able to just be very knock her back and forth in the scene, and I think it showed.
I want to see the outtakes by the way of.
Which you and and Hathaway, Yeah, we're never going to see those outtakes.
Where are that?
I don't know who's got them. There was a whole nother character from that from the movie, like she lived with someone else.
Oh, I wondered.
In that apartment.
Oh really really.
Funny, And they cut that for whatever creative reason they needed to, and that actor.
She did seem oddly friendless.
Yes, yes, she Yeah, but she lived with this guy who was like a divorced guy and they were sharing an apartment together and that was part of the reason she moved to her own apart. But they cut it because you have to. You're gonna make these choices. You're going to go, yeah, what is this movie actually about it? It's not about that, it's not about that story. It's great, but when you're putting it together, you've got to figure out what you know. You've got to figure out what
is the story you're telling. You can't tell all the stories.
Do you think now?
And obviously there are people that guide your career, Yeah, do you think or you and I imagine you try to keep yourself devoid of expectation about where things will lead. Yes, but there are certain things that you do that mean that you're seeing in a different life. Yeah, and I think this is one of them, definitely.
And so what could that mean?
It could mean. It could mean the different sorts of work come up, more work opportunities, higher level, you know, professional things. But it's a kind of a dichotomy for me. Because on the one hand, it's more it's potentially more work. But because I'm middle aged and I have two little kids, yeah, I understand that that's more important than anything, you know, so and so in a way, I'm like, oh, fuck, wouldn't have been good if this kind of opportunity happened
twenty years ago when I was thirty. But I know I wouldn't have been ready, right, I wouldn't have been ready. I would have got I'm sure I would have got caught up in it and think that it was truly valuable. Of course it's valuable. Of course it's amazing.
I don't just get anything, but you know the value of other things.
Well, I'm aware of my In fact, I'm going to die. We're all going to die, like it's funny. But and I have tiny people who depend on me, and and that's more important than this. And it's fucking great to have this, and I need this to have professional satisfaction and be able to provide all that sort of stuff is very, very important. But I'm not getting the dishes, not running away with the spoon like it would have if this had happened to me earlier.
Stay with us, because my conversation with Patrick continues.
After this break.
So, you know how you were just talking about, you know you're going to die because of your spoiler alert.
I know that that will be unhappy.
Yeah.
Yeah, because of the health complications you had from.
Birth that lasted.
So you were born with a thing called the prune belly. That was like a few years ago when I was diagnosed with faty liver syndrome, a name.
You should have a sexy disease, I just really should.
I got over mine and you got over yours.
What did it mean for you as a child because you had a lot of medical interventions, a lot of surgery.
Yeah, So I was born with this condition. It's in America. It's called Eagle Barrett syndrome, which is an it's a nice name, and it's a really rare thing and it's really difficult to nail down because it affects the renal system. And so it was kidney's bladder potentially luves for me. It's it's in most cases, it's it's boys. Very few girls born with this. Wow. And it's not genetic necessarily. They don't know what causes it are what the fuck? And so it's a series of issues that when you
combine them, they give it this label. And in my case, I had this giant bladder and it didn't work well, and so I had to have a surgery when I was two weeks old to save my life. And there's a in my family, there's this sort of mythical story. Was not a myth. It's true that when I was tiny, and Mum and dad were kind of like, what is happening with his child? I'm the third of three kids,
And dad overheard one night the nurses. I was in the hospital and Dad overheard the nurse saying to the you know, the one who'd been on all day, saying to the one to the night shift, the brawm or boy might die tonight, so just you know, be ready for that, just in case. You know. That's that's kind
of where it's at. And so that obviously I can't imagine what my dad they went through a lot, and so so so that surgery was life saving when I was two weeks old, and and then and I had and then I think was it then or maybe slightly later where I had my eurrotus. So the eurrotors come from the kidneys and go to the bladder right, but the bladder wasn't doing anything. There was nothing coming out.
You learned a lot on offscreen, didn't you.
I really did, did. I really went hard on that. So they they cut the eurotors and then redirected them outside my body, so I had do so the the stuff was coming straight out of the kidneys into the outside my body into bags. Yeah, like a nappy, special nappy that Mum cut up nappies and put them around my waist. And I was like that for like a year. So I had a bunch of surgery, so I was about ten. And it definitely shaped me in ways I'm
unaware of. But I think I mean, I certainly, I mean that's again with luck, like you could say it was really unlucky. I was born with that. But I do feel like it shaped me in a great way. I don't think I would change anything if I could, because it was. I think there's a certain vulnerability that maybe maybe point of view. I don't know about point of view maybe, but also maybe I think I'm pretty
quick to accept circumstances. I'm certainly not the sort of person who will change things that I'm not happy with, not not without some doing when.
You so was it as a result of that that you couldn't have biological children?
Yeah?
It was all part of that, Yeah, all tied up. So I always knew that I wouldn't be able to have kids naturally.
And then how was that conversation with Harry did that come up with she's softening you up with minchew?
Yah, she knew what she was doing, Minshew. And then we got out like our boy Walter who's now forty eight in human.
Years, Yeah right, he was about fifty actually, And are you're compatriots, Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, he's my peer. So she knew from the get gou I couldn't have kids, and she was like, well that's okay, let's see. And then and then as time went on, we were in America and we thought, what are we going to do here? Let's look into adoption, because that's that's a viable option in the States, and it's.
Not unlike here.
Like here, it's really restrictive for all sorts.
Of almost impossible.
Yeah, yeah, really hard. So it wouldn't have happened for us. Yeah, in the States, it's in some ways option is almost an industry, which is problematic in its own way.
But I've heard Harry say she was the nine months gestation with paperwork.
Absolutely, Yeah, it was before you got Jonie.
Yeah, and that was a real exercise in acceptance, letting go of control. Like it's really like, it's not like having a what do you call it? A donor a what do you call it?
Oh?
Yeah, where you go they get a health screening and you check the downs and blah blah blah, you've got nothing.
It's like because you're at least a part of that process. Yeah, but this one are you just waiting for the drop pretty much?
Pretty much? And we met the birth mum and we're still in touch with her, and it's really important that I think that we are. And yeah it was. It was kind of crazy. I mean, life fucking unfolds and what does that mean?
Do you think you know?
Because creatively you have birthed many things and people do talk about that all the time.
This is my baby or this is my and now you have a baby.
Yeah.
What what felt different straight away?
What felt different when I first became a dad was I was like, you're my number one job. This child is my number one job for life.
God, it's emotional, it's tolling, Yeah, but why not because.
It was That's how I felt and how I still feel. But now she's four and a half and I love her more than anything. It's not just my job, but it always will be. But it's my joy as well.
So much so you went round again, went.
Around again with Mabel. Yeah, and Mabel's are just over one and and same vibement. She's becoming a person. I was starting to see her personality, which is also a joy and an exhausted parenting is fucking amazing. It is because you can be you can be like have undying love for someone that you are incredibly angry with in the same breath. Yes, it's fucking weird.
Yes it's weird, and it's a stretch of you in that's it. Oh, my places that you didn't even know could stretch.
That's right, it's the stretch, and that's I guess that's what I mean when I talked before about if this professional fortune had come earlier, I wouldn't have been ready. And I think being a dad is largely responsible for that. It stretched me in a way that you don't expect
to get stretched. You don't want to get stretched, but you stretch nonetheless, and you discover what really is important and what isn't in some And I'm only a young I'm not a young dad, but I'm young in my dad journey, you know, Yes, yes, So there's a shipload more for me to stretch and to find out and to be broken by. Yes, but you know that's what it is.
Well, I got four kids, and I say all the time, I don't know, I've never been a mother before.
We don't know, you don't know.
Yeah, that's right.
Four yeah, four.
And in fact it's my daughter's twenty first today.
Oh my god.
And I'm just going to say, as the dad of two girls.
Good luck, mate, good luck.
But it's also very beautiful. But you're going to be Jamaican Bob sledding for for a bit of it.
You know it's gonna and girls the spread, boy girl, boy boy, oh wow wow.
Okay, because you know, people often say, oh, you've got a pitch and time to stop, which we did.
Boy girl, We didn't stop.
You didn't tell your advice. We read it.
We can cut you know what.
I don't regret it for a second, although we did. My eldest son, Louis, and this one, I'm curious about your own health. Thing was diagnosed with leukemia when.
He was six.
Oh my god, and he's fine now, but we had these four and a half years of like brutal sort of intervention or whatever. And I do wonder about the effect of what that not only had on.
Him, but on all of us yep.
And the family around you, and what how you are now when you look at your girls. Hughesy always says this thing to me, where he goes, if you've got your health, you've got everything.
Yep.
Hard to.
Come back to that sometimes, yeah, but ultimately true.
Yes, and there is a lot of truth to it, but it's I mean, fuck, it helps. Having health helps. But basically, if you've got your life, you've got everything. You know, there's all sorts of degrees of health, you know, I mean, but when you're sick, of course, it has an effect. I mean, that's all we have is cause and effects. We don't have anything else. There's no like overarching meaning, No one gives you a medal for anything you do in your life. You know, it's it's just
cause and effect. And some shit is luck getting lukemia, it's bad luck me being born the way I was Prune really bad luck, bad luck, good luck and good luck's great. That Great Bluey episode, that final one you see the sign that half an hour and Joe Brown is already such a brilliant rider and he puts in this you know, what do you call it? Like not analogy, like a like a lesson in it like an old
story and an allegory. But it's told to the kids, and the idea is like you know, someone, something happens like, oh, that's bad luck. Well we'll see, we'll see that. You really never know until nothing makes sense to you. Look over your shoulder and see what's happened, and then you can see the cause and effect. I think. But you don't know what's good luck and what's bad luck really until after it happens. I don't know what effect your
Son's Lakemi you had on your family. I'm sure going through it was a fucking nightmare and broke you all in different ways. But you actually, I don't think you know if it was a good thing or a bad Well.
I do think it gives you a capacity to.
Feel yeah, and I think you are Australia's good luck.
We're lucky to have you. I'm very happy to have you repping us.
Thanks mate, don't you think I'm just happy to be here.
And we're happy to have you here, And thank you for no filter.
It's nice to have been here. I wish I didn't get so close to tears. But what are you going to do? It's no filter, it's no filter. It's true what they.
Say, But also why why not be emotional?
Sure, I don't know, it's all right.
Yeah, you're making me tear up.
Yeah, it's good stuff.
That my friends is Patrick Bramble, And what's so striking about him is that, even at this moment, on the brink of something that could shift his career in a very big way, there's still a sense of steadiness about
how he sees himself and his life. He's someone who's built things slowly, a career, a partnership, a family, and now as the rest of the world gets to know him, it feels like they're being introduced not just to an actor, but to someone who's taken the long way to this moment and has the experience to know it doesn't define him and to know exactly what matters to him beyond it. Thank you so much for listening to No Filter. The executive producer of No Filter is Pre Player. The assistant
producer is Coco Levine. Audio production and video editing by Josh Green, Social production by Olivia Coleman. This episode was recorded at Muma MEA's studios. I'm Kate Langbrook and I will see you next Monday